[conlang_learners] Length of time to learn

[Jim Henry]

2009/7/15 Matthew Turnbull <ave.jor at gmail.com>:

> On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 8:38 AM, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:

>> A more complex artlang would suit me pretty well too, and I dislike
>> use of fauxnetics to the exclusion of IPA ...

> If the group doesn't like the romanization,

Hmm... there've been several people who've expressed a preference for
a language that can be typed in ASCII or a readily available keyboard
layout, rather than requiring a custom keyboard layout or something.
But that's not what Amanda and I were talking about here: we were
saying we preferred conlang documentation to use IPA in explaining the
phonemes of the language and their allophones and so forth, rather
than simply saying "the sound represented by this conlang
letter/digraph sounds like the sound represesented by this English
letter/digraph..."

That said, however...

> you have to remember that the
> language is not it's writing system, and really we could just ask the
> creator to create a more friendly romanization, or one of us could do so
> ourselves.

You're quite right.   Probably in asking conlang creators if they mind
us using their conlang for this project, we should also (if they don't
have an all-ASCII romanization or one that can be written on a
standardly available keyboard layout) ask if they mind us coming up
with an alternate romanization, with or without their input according
to their preference.

AFMC, in the unlikely event gzb is chosen y'all have my permission to
go crazy trying to come up with a better romanization than I've got.
I'm on record as saying both the ASCII and Unicode orthographies are
unsatisfactory representations of gzb's native writing system, so if
someone else can create a better one, I'd be quite happy.

I seem to recall that Tony Harris has an all-ASCII orthography for
Alurhsa, which he uses as an input method for typing his
diacritic-packed Unicode version of the language.  Rick Harrison's
Vorlin has an ASCII alternative to its one non-Latin letter (a variant
of eng, with a curly tail, designed to be more distinct from plain
'n').  I think Dayle here was just talking about an alternate
all-ASCII orthography for Dalcurian.

-- 
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/